Fr Andrew John Kane OP (1935 - 2021) - an obituary

Andrew Kane died in Tallaght

University Hospital yesterday morning.

John Kane was born in 1935. He attended CBS Synge Street and was in the same year as the late Hugh Fenning. They both joined the Dominicans in 1953, spending their noviciate year in Cork before moving to Tallaght, where they studied philosophy and theology in the Dominican studium.  Andrew was a local Tallaght boy from Greenhills Road. He and Hugh were ordained priests in 1960.

On joining the Dominicans John was given the name Andrew and Tom Fenning became Hugh Fenning. 

Andrew did post graduate studies at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Shortly after priestly ordination he was appointed to the teaching staff in Tallaght where he taught philosophy and logic. He also taught philosophy in Wonersh, near Guilford in Surrey in the English Diocese of Arundel and Brighton. In the early 1970s he taught the Dominican novices in Cork. 

Andrew was a gifted genius. When it comes to talk about Andrew Kane one could be tempted to say that words fail.

The late Archbishop William Barden said that Andy was the most intelligent person he ever taught and that his intelligence frightened him.

To add to his story he spent most of his life afflicted with bi-polar disorder. 

Archbishop Michael Neary accurately says of Andy that the Cross never left his shoulders.

The Nearys and the Kanes were lifelong family friends and it all came about as a result of a mistake Andy made. Andy was visiting his sister in hospital and in error went into the wrong room, where he met an aunt of Archbishop Michael Neary. Andrew being Andrew got talking to the woman. One thing led to another and the outcome of the error was that the Kanes went on summer holidays to Castlebar and the Nearys travelled from Castlebar to Tallaght.

Archbishop Neary readily admits that it was not the philosophy that they shared but rather the football and hurling. He recalls being at the 1994 Leitrim Mayo Connacht Senior Final where Andrew was so ill that he fell asleep during the game. Andrew must have been seriously unwell that day.  

Thomas Davis Football Club was the most important thing in his life. Apologies, not correct, his faith, indeed, his priesthood was at the core of his being.

While he could be considered an ‘old-fashioned priest’, whatever that might mean, the wily philosopher he was, allowed him see well beyond the silly clericalism of some priests.

He lived in a number of Dominican priories, including St Mary’s Tallaght, Pope’s Quay, Cork, St Malachy’s, Dundalk, Kilkenny and Athy. He has the honour of being a member of the last community in Athy before it was closed down. 

From Athy he moved to Kiltipper Nursing Home, where he would spend the last six years of his life. 

While in the nursing home he received many visitors from Dominican confreres and friends and there was a constant stream of GAA players and officials from all over the country but especially from the local Thomas Davis GAA Club. His close Dominican friend Donal Roche was among his regular visitors. They had soldiered together when Donal was prior in St Malachy’s, Dundalk.

In the 1960s/early 1970s Andrew was vocations director and also director of Knockadoon Holiday Camp in East Cork.

There is no end to the stories, the yarns, the tales of woe and laughter that can be told about this period in his life. He had the ability of being profoundly sad or depressed and hilariously funny at the same time.

He was often known to leave the priory in Tallaght after breakfast and arrive in Knockadoon in East Cork close to midnight. En route he would get distracted and find himself having to make urgent calls to young men who had contacted him expressing an interest in joining the order. Or else calling to someone to get and give a critical analysis of the previous Sunday’s GAA game and more talk on the following Sunday’s games.

Once while he was driving a group of students from Tallaght to Knockadoon, most of the journey was spent discussing Andrew's problem of whether a banana is a fruit or a vegetable!

 

There was the story of the famous Knockadoon boat that was brought to Dublin for repairs. A problem arose about how to get it back to Cork. Eventually Andy’s brother, who was a truck driver, was inveigled to transport it back to Knockadoon. The story of putting that boat on that truck in Tallaght one summer evening is material for a best selling Roddy Doyle novel.

The late Bob Talty often told a story of how on one occasion both he and Andy were visiting friends of Bob and were served up an apple tart. Andy expressed how delicious it was but went on to say that he ‘did taste one nicer’.

Andy had extraordinary people skills. In other words, he could manage to get people to do anything for him. And he did. Andrew’s ability of talking openly and honestly about his illness was an endearing feature of his personality. People realised how genuine he was. He was a man of great integrity and that shone brightly throughout his life. 

It would seem that he knew every single person whoever kicked a GAA ball. Some years ago I asked him did he know the former Dublin manager Jim Gavin. He spent the next 30 minutes recalling how he had travelled with him on one occasion to a Sunday game.

Andrew worked day and night during his years as director of Knocakadoon Holiday Camp. There was a wonderful  creative chaos to it all, more or less what a holiday camp for boys should be. At least that was the style back in the day.

But he paid a heavy price for his overworking . On one occasion returning back to the camp in the dark he had a road accident near Castlemartyr. He sustained a number of broken bones and spent some time in hospital. At the time it was said he was extremely lucky not to have been killed.

Indeed, hospitals were not unfamiliar places for Andy. Due to his life-long illness he spent regular periods in St Patrick’s University Hospital.

Andrew Kane, called Andy by some, Johnny by others and always Johnny Kane by the late Bob Talty, was a complete and total gentleman. There was not a tissue of guile in him. He was a wonderful human being.

He is survived by his sister, Imelda, who is a Presentation Sister.

May he rest in peace.

In compliance with the current HSE guidelines, the funeral will be limited to 50 people. 

 

Removal to St Mary's Priory Church, Tallaght arriving for 5:30pm on Friday, June 4.

Requiem Mass on Saturday morning at 11.30.  Burial in community cemetery. The removal and Mass can be viewed online at http://www.churchservices.tv/tallaght.